An application of half-terrace model to surface ripening of non-bulk GaAs layers

In order to predict the actual quantity of non-bulk GaAs layers after long-time homoepitaxy on GaAs (001) by theoretical calculation, a half-terrace diffusion model based on thermodynamics is used to calculate the ripening time of GaAs layers to form a flat morphology in annealing. To verify the accuracy of the calculation, real space scanning tunneling microscopy images of GaAs surface after different annealing times are obtained and the roughness of the GaAs surface is measured. The results suggest that the half terrace model is an accurate method with a relative error of about 4.1%.